On December 2, the Sacramento Area Woodworkers had their annual Christmas party and Toy Giveaway. The SAW group has been making these toys for over 15 years. We presented the toys to the Salvation Army for distribution to needy children at Christmas.
Our members made 1,638 toys for this year’s project. Several ladies in the group made bedding for all the cradles and one lady supplied dolls for the cradles! Individuals made these toys while attending small “work sessions”, usually comprised of several members with about 20 percent of the group taking a very active part. For the past five years, we’ve had two or three of these work sessions a year at our local Woodcraft store. The club buys wheels for the cars and some of the materials. Local lumberyards and furniture manufacturers donate a lot of the wood.

The first two pictures show some of the 32 doll cradles that Sonja and I made. We used my homemade pin router to cut the ends and sides. The joinery is mortise and tenon construction with no metal fasteners. The cradles are made of donated wood (oak veneer over MDF). They were primed, sealed, and colored with a wipe on solution of Zinsser Primer-Sealer, TransTint dyes, and lacquer retarder. The final finish is Varathane Waterborne Diamond Finish (sprayed). I sprayed them in the great outdoors between/during rainstorms and moved them indoors to dry!

The following pictures are toys made by other members in the club. Not shown are the boxes of push rattles, floppy feet ducks, hundreds of cars and trucks, building blocks, and miniature basketball games, plus much more.